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Monday, March 22, 2010

personal pizza party

Dinner for a bunch of friends of mixed ages, and with varying eating preferences, can be a challenge. We always seem to have success with a make your own personal pizza party. This past Saturday night was another good one, and I realized that there's a hidden bonus: you don't have to prep much before your guests arrive... dinner becomes a cooperative endeavor. Community cooking is always more festive! The act of rolling out dough and decorating their own little pizza is entertaining for even the smallest guests... who, inevitably just like "plain pizza". Grown-ups will have an inordinate amount of fun getting creative with toppings while drinking a good bottle of wine. If you haven't had a pizza party... please, do! If you already are a pizza party giver... go make plans for another one soon... so delicious!

Personal Pizzas

Double any pizza dough recipe and divide into small fist sized balls. Cover with a cloth and let rest until you're ready to roll.

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.

Roll (with a pin) until very thin, no more than 1/4 of an inch and place on baking sheet. I love the pizza pans with holes to achieve a nice crispy crust.

Brush with olive oil. This creates a barrier between the sauce and dough to prevent soggy pizza.

Add your toppings and then slightly roll over all of the edges.

Lower heat to 475 degrees and bake until golden and bubbly. This won't take long, so keep an eye on your pizzas!

Topping suggestions:The Basic: tomato sauce and grated mozzarella.The sky's the limit for getting wild or sophisticated with extra toppings. Try The Basic with any of the following: pesto, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, feta, spinach, red onions,tepenade, goat cheese etc.One of our Saturday night chefs made a scrumptious white garlic pizza. No tomatoes, just mozzarella, feta, and lots of fresh pressed garlic. Or go in the opposite direction for a vegan pizza by just adding fresh tomatoes, pesto (w/o cheese) and kalamata olives. I'm getting hungry just thinking about the possibilities.

A few notes:

Optional: open the wine before you begin!

Set up two different stations: rolling and toppings.

Partner up with someone and collaborate.

Have children make several at a time, so that their pizza is in a quick rotation for the oven... they can't wait as long as we can.

Relax about all sitting down together for the whole meal... this is supposed to be casual. Someone will be topping a second or third sometime during the meal.

I have a stock of great bases in the freezer for the quick fix pizza.We have curry parties. Everyone brings a curry and we order in naan and make a big pot of rice. Plenty of mix and match and leftovers for everyone's lunch.

Homemade pizzas are great aren't they? I make them a couple of times a week because they're so easy to make and taste so fresh.My personal fave is Pepperoni, Tuna, and mushroom, with plenty of cheese and fresh basil - yummy!!

that's a great idea for having people over! here's our favorite topping...spinach, garlic, red peppers, garlic sauteed in olive oil. we top w/ shavings of fontina cheese. yum. lovely blog. so glad to have found it.

I love pear and gorgonzola (the pear goes between the crust and the cheese - no tomatoes), and the pear sort of melts and becomes sauce. I also love the quattro formaggio from Trader Joe's. That's my favorite pizza cheese. I've been enjoying thin slices of eggplant on pizza lately, too.

I love the pizza party idea! I remember going to a GREAT pasta party when I was a kid. The guests were all asked to bring their favorite sauce, which went on a sauce buffet. The kids cranked out the fresh pasta at the party. So fun! I definitely want to do this when my kids get a little bigger.

both of my children LOVE olives on their pizza. a family favorite is bbq chicken pie. grilled chicken, bbq sauce in place of tomato sauce, pineapple, and green onions....jalapenos for the adults. mmmmmm....i want some now!

Magic! Pizza for my little boy tonight - he was 6 today and this was his special tea choice. However, tonight was pizza with a twist - rolled up like cinnamon buns and turned into pizza 'snails'. Yummy. The children's favourite topping is ham and pineapple. Oldies are goodies!

Mountain Girl- I like making dairy free pizza without any cheese substitute, but there are so many alternatives these days. When I was vegan we used to use the Farm Cookbook a lot. This is the link to the nutritional yeast cheese recipe that we used to make... mostly for macaroni and cheese.http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/cheese.ht Have fun experimenting!

I love goat cheese, roasted red peppers and really food italian sausage. I also love a BBQ pizza--with BBQ for the sauce, add a little chicken, some mushrooms, red peppers, onions and top with a combo of mozzarella and colby-jack cheese...also, this is such a good idea with the pizza party. I am going to plan one for this weekend...